NBA approves the sale of Los Angeles Lakers for over $10 billion

Los Angeles Lakers will be sold for over $10 billion (according to The Athletic, the final number could be around $12 billion), it is now official. The news first broke last summer, and now the NBA Board of Governors has unanimously approved the sale.

Businessman Jerry Buss bought the NBA franchise in 1979 for $67.5 million (equivalent to $290 million in 2024). Now, the team that has won 10 NBA championships under the ownership of the Buss family will be sold for $10,000 million to Mark Walter, CEO of the holding company TWG Global. However, Jeanie Buss, daughter of Jerry, will remain the team's Governor for at least five years, and the Buss family will still have a 15% stake in Lakers.

This will go down in history as the biggest sale for a US sports team in history, dwarfing the sale of Boston Celtics by $6.1 billion last March, which already held the record. However, they are shy from being the most valuable sport franchises, according to Sportico: Los Angeles Lakers would be fifth in the list, behind New York Giants, Los Angeles Rams, Golden State Warriors (the most valuable in NBA, at $11.33b)and Dallas Cowboys ($12.2b).